The Dhaka Times Desk As the severity of winter increases, so will the juice of dates. And the work of trees will also increase. But today there is a story of a tree in the profession of 200 years!
Even in the morning, the sun is not visible. Some people broke through the thick fog and came out. The body has twisted ropes. And a bamboo basket on the waist, with batal-hansua inside. He climbed the palm tree with the earthen pot hanging on his body. Tied the empty pot and brought down the pot of juice. This scene of trees on a winter morning is a familiar image of rural Bengal.
Gachi is one of the oldest professions in rural areas. When winter comes, their value increases. Agrahayana began to prepare trees to collect palm juice. The Gachirs arrange to tie the tree pots by lifting the bark of the trees. The darker the mood of winter, the less time the earthen pots of the trees are filled with palm juice.
Every Bengali wants to taste this date palm juice in winter morning. This season seems to be the start of the Ras Pitha and Pithapuli festival. At this time, many kinds of pita are prepared in the homes of Bengal. One of the ingredients of that pitha is palm juice lali (mildly burnt juice) and date jaggery.
There are palm trees all over the country. The number of date palm trees in Rajshahi and relatively in Jessore is quite good. In Abhaynagar of Jessore district, I spoke to some gachis who have been dealing in palm juice for 40/45 years.
Abdur Rauf, an old planter, said that palm trees were made at the beginning of Agrahayan. That is, the bark on one side of the tree's head is removed. Then after a few days the peeled part should be dried. At the end of agrahayana, two eyes are cut (or grooved) on the upper side of the palm bark. After that, half an inch of 7-8 inch long thin bamboo kanchi should be inserted in the part where the juice is released. Finally, the sap that drips through the stick is collected in small pots hanging on the tree.
Generally, in these two months of Paush-Magh (December-January), the gachirs collect sap from palm trees. Another tree grower Jalil Ahmed told a news media that once the tree is trimmed, the sap can be collected for 3 to 4 days. The next time is to dry again for 3 days. Then the juice is collected again by light pruning. A tree yields about 5 liters of sap per day. At present, Gachirs get an average minimum price of Tk 50 to Tk 60 by selling one liter of juice.
The date palm juice business has a history of at least 200 years for the people of this region. Which is also mentioned in several books. According to historian Satish Chandra Mitra's book History of Jessohar Khulna, in 1900-01 date molasses was produced in East Bengal at about 2.2 million maunds, which is equal to about 82 thousand tons.
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How to prevent dengue
Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral fever. This fever is different from other viral or bacterial fevers. However, this fever is not contagious in any way. This viral fever can occur alone or in combination with other viruses (chikungunya, yellow fever, Burma forest, flu, respiratory syncytial) and bacteria (pneumococcus).
Dengue fever is divided into two categories depending on the severity of symptoms and fever.
1. Common dengue fever
2. Dengue fever with bleeding.
In the case of common dengue fever, the following symptoms are mainly seen-
1. Sudden high fever lasting 2 to 7 days.
2. Severe headache.
3. Pain behind the eyes.
4. Along with the fever, red rash appears all over the body.
5. Severe pain in whole body as well as back pain.
6. Nausea or vomiting.
7. A rash or red bumps on the skin.
In case of dengue fever with bleeding:
1. Bleeding from nose, mouth or vomiting with high fever within 2 to 48 hours.
2. Fluid accumulation in chest or abdomen along with fever.
If any of these symptoms appear, seek medical attention immediately.
On the other hand
Wait at home for the first 3 days of fever. On the other hand, sponge the whole body with water every now and then. This will reduce the level of fever. Drink enough water and rest. After that, if the fever does not decrease or if it continues to increase after some time, consult a doctor immediately.
Things to do to prevent Dengue:
1. Try to keep the surroundings of the house as clean as possible.
2. If there are flower tubs or broken plastic bottles, can shells, tires or polythene inside the house, clean them quickly and drain the accumulated water from the flower tubs.
3. Spray or fog at least 3 times a week to kill mosquitoes.
4. You can keep mosquito repellent cream with you while going out.
5. After evening, younger and older members of the household should use mosquito nets.
6. Clean up any accumulated rain water, as this is the time when Aedes mosquitoes lay their eggs.
7. On the other hand, you can use mats along with mosquito nets to avoid mosquito infestation.
8. Since Aedes mosquitoes bite during the day, it is important to avoid sleeping with mosquito nets while sleeping during the day. Source: https://dmpnews.org
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